A quantum connection between light and motion

 February 6, 2012
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© 2012 EPFL

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have demonstrated a system in which light is used to control the motion of an object that is large enough to be seen with the naked eye at the level where quantum mechanics governs its behavior.

The movement of objects is ultimately governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, which predict some intriguing phenomena: An object could simultaneously be in two places at the same time, and it should always be moving a little, even at a temperature of absolute zero - the oscillator is then said to be in its quantum 'ground state'. Until recently, these strange predictions of quantum mechanics have only been observed in the motion of tiny objects such as individual atoms. For large objects, the unavoidable coupling of the object to the surrounding environment quickly washes out the quantum properties, in a process known as decoherence. But researchers in EPFL’s Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements have now shown that it is possible to use light to control the vibrational motion of a large object, consisting of a hundred trillion atoms, at the quantum level. The results of their research have been published in the February 2nd edition of Nature magazine.



A ring of light

The object they used was circular in design - a 30-micrometer diameter glass donut mounted on a microchip. Under the direction of Tobias Kippenberg, the team injected a laser into a thin optical fiber, and brought the fiber close to the donut, allowing light to 'jump' to the object and circulate around the circumference of the donut up to a million times. Just as the pressure of a finger running along the rim of a wineglass will cause it to hum, the tiny force exerted by the photons traveling inside the glass ring can cause it to vibrate at a well-defined frequency. But the force can in fact also dampen the vibrations, and thus cool down the oscillatory motion.

Cold, colder...

Cooling is crucial to reaching the regime of quantum mechanical motion, as this is normally overshadowed by random thermal fluctuations. For this reason, the structure is placed in a cryostat that brings it to a temperature of less than one degree above absolute zero (−273.15°C). The light launched into the donut slows down the motion one hundred times, thus cooling it even more, very close to the quantum 'ground state'. And more importantly, the interaction between light and the movement of the oscillator can be made so strong that the two form an intimate connection: A small excitation in the form of a light pulse was fully transformed into a small vibration and back again. For the first time, this transformation between light and motion was made to occur within a time that is short enough so that the quantum properties of the original light pulse are not lost in the process through decoherence. By outpacing decoherence, these results demonstrate the possibility of controlling the quantum properties of an object’s motion. It also provides a way to see the peculiar predictions of quantum mechanics at play in man-made objects.

Looking forward

Mechanical vibrations can be coupled to quantum systems of completely different nature (such as electric currents), as well as to light. They could therefore be used to ‘translate’ quantum information between those systems and light signals. This is especially beneficial as it allows to transport quantum information - the basic ingredient of a future quantum computer - over large distances in optical fibers.

More information: Quantum-coherent coupling of a mechanical oscillator to an optical cavity mode, E. Verhagen, S. Deléglise, S. Weis, A. Schliesser, Tobias J. Kippenberg, Nature, January 2012. DOI: 10.1038/nature10787

Provided by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

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Make money, passion or else ...?

It’s not just about pay cheque but also passion

MONDAY STARTERS By SOO EWE JIN

AMONG the many stories that have emerged in the global excitement over the Facebook initial public offering (IPO), I find the one about David Choe to be most interesting.
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Choe grew up in a tough neighbourhood in Los Angeles. His crime-ridden childhood and search for acceptance in the art community included a life-changing experience in a Tokyo prison.

Today, the 35-year-old Korean-American, who used to paint graffiti on the streets, is acknowledged as a world-class muralist and graffiti artist.

His “dirty style” figure paintings, including one of President Barack Obama, have made him an icon.

Now comes the interesting part.

In 2005, Choe was commissioned to paint the walls of the first office of Facebook in Palo Alto, California. Two years later, he was asked to do the same for the new headquarters.

He was given the option to be paid either in cash or with Facebook shares.

The New York Times quoted Choe as saying that although he felt the very idea of Facebook seemed “ridiculous and pointless” at the time, he chose the stock.

His shares are expected to be worth more than US$200mil once Facebook stock trades publicly later this year.

Don’t we just love stories like this?

Here is a man who is fully passionate about what he does, and who seems to be content with being recognised more for his talent than the monetary returns of his works. And good fortune smiles upon him and he is suddenly propelled into the ranks of the super-rich.

What would you do if you were in such a position?

I am not talking about ill-gotten gains or fantastic corporate manoeuvres but about how we, as individuals, can be so passionate about our work that even the world will sit up and take notice.

We work for the sheer joy of giving our best, without even thinking of monetary possibilities.

For example, if one were to write a book, he must write like an award-winning author. If the book also happens to make it to the New York Times Bestsellers List and he gets inundated with multi-million ringgit contracts, that will be a bonus, not his intent.



The late Tan Sri Dr Noordin Sopiee, who was my boss at one time, used to say that while it may appear unfair that some countries are blessed with valuable resources below their feet (like gold, oil and gas), God is very fair because there is always equal distribution of what we have between our ears (meaning our brains).

Creativity cannot be stifled by geographic boundaries. A dear friend, who worked on the animation work for hit movies like Iron Man and Mission Impossible 4 for an American company based in Singapore, has just moved to another company based in Sydney.

His talent is recognised and is made the more meaningful because he has a hearing disability which is not discriminated against by his employers.

He is passionate about what he does and his changing jobs is always about exploring his full potential, not about the pay cheque.

Going by this argument, I wonder if there are graffiti artists in the streets of Kuala Lumpur who have that level of passion to propel them to international stardom, like David Choe.

Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin is impressed that Egyptian teenager Nour El Sherbini has a burning ambition to be the next Nicol David and is working hard to be the next long-term queen of squash. He wonders why no Malaysian squash player has publicly expressed such a desire.

Facing facts: smart move makes artist a multimillionaire

Nick Bilton, Evelyn Rusli

Stocking up ... from left, co-founders of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz with Sean Parker and the murals. Photo: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO: The graffiti artist who took Facebook stock instead of cash for painting the walls of the social network's first headquarters made a smart move. The shares owned by the artist, David Choe, are expected to be worth more than $US200 million ($187 million) when Facebook stock trades publicly this year.

The social network company announced a $5 billion public offering this week, which is expected to value the company at up to $US100 billion.

The Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 27, has 533.8 million shares, worth $US28.3 billion based on a company valuation of $US100 billion, or $US53 a share. He has undisputed control of the company - owning 28.4 per cent of the company outright and controlling 57 per cent of the voting rights.

Windfall ... David Choe.

Facebook's first outside investor, Peter Thiel, the billionaire contrarian, led a $US500,000 investment in Facebook in late 2004. He has 44.7 million shares that could be worth more than $US2 billion. Elevation Partners, the venture capital firm of Bono, the U2 frontman, paid $US120 million for a chunk of Facebook's shares in 2010.

Choe's payout could provide more money from his paintings than Sotheby's attracted for its record-breaking $US200.7 million auction in 2008 for work by the artist Damien Hirst.

In 2005, Choe was invited to paint murals on the walls of Facebook's first offices in Palo Alto, California, by Sean Parker, then Facebook's president. As pay, Mr Parker offered Choe a choice between cash in the ''thousands of dollars,'' according to several people who know Choe, or stock then worth about the same amount. Choe, who has said that at the time that he thought the idea of Facebook was ''ridiculous and pointless'', nevertheless chose the stock.

Many ''advisers'' to the company at that time, which is how Choe would have been classified, would have received about 0.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent of the company, a former Facebook employee said. That may sound like a paltry amount, but a stake that size is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, based on a market value of $US100 billion valuing Choe's payment at about $US200 million.

Choe is now a very successful artist with gallery shows and pieces exhibited in museums. His page on Facebook shows the life of a modern-day renegade artist. Choe declined requests to be interviewed; he said he wanted to maintain his privacy. But he has published an obscenity-strewn book of his art, David Choe, which includes images of the multimillion-dollar murals at Facebook.

He also offers life advice in his book: ''Always double down on 11. Always.''
Maybe the better advice is to take stock, not cash, from Harvard dropouts in Silicon Valley.

The New York Times

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• David Choe is the Smartest Artist Ever (thedenveregotist.com)
• Facebook graffiti artist David Choe, from homeless to millions - CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Facebook's Upcoming IPO Will Make Artist David Choe A Very Rich Man (ohgizmo.com)
• David Choe Slideshow (telegraph.co.uk)

Guan Eng the 'street fighter' ?

Chua chides Penang CM for trying to gain political mileage by spinning facts

By ALLISON LAI alison@thestar.com.my

MALACCA: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng should refrain from being a political “street fighter” and instead focus his attention on resolving woes faced by Penangites like a true statesman, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said.

Taking a swipe at Lim for suggesting that MCA was a chauvinist party that supported Perkasa, Dr Chua stressed that Lim should pay attention at addressing pressing issues in his own state rather than challenging others and being interested in gaining political mileage by condemning others.

“It is a bread-and-butter issue today and people are observing what he (Lim) is doing to Penang.

“I humbly suggest for the sake of Lim Guan Eng, who is holding a key post as Chief Minister, to talk less politics, minimise spinning facts and refrain from attacking people.


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“Behave like an administrator, a statesman managing the Penang government,” he said at the Kuan Ti Temple Chinese New Year dinner here last night.

Dr Chua cited Penang's dire public transport system, unkempt hawker centres and wet markets as basis for his call for Lim to focus on issues affecting Penangites.



He also rubbished Lim's claim that MCA was a racist party that supported Perkasa just because one of MCA's party members attended its event.

“This is sheer nonsense.

“If Perkasa is a racist Malay group and MCA a racist Chinese party, then they would be in conflict and how can these two be supporting each other?

“It is as simple as oil and water can never mix together,” he said, adding MCA also had many photos that showed DAP leaders talking to Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali on stage when the latter was still with PAS.

“So are you drawing the conclusion that DAP had been working with Perkasa from the beginning?” he asked.

Dr Chua pressed further, saying that Lim, who always appeared at PAS functions, would probably embrace the party's spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat when they meet.

“Is DAP implying that MCA would say that DAP is supporting PAS and hudud?

“If we draw this kind of conclusion and political spinning, I would (also) draw this type of conclusion,” he added.